Nostalgia for Tiger Stadium blamed for lack of development at site

Jul. 16, 2013

Joe Michnuk of Dearborn, a member of Navin F ield Grounds Crew — a group devoted to the old Tiger Stadium — helps care for the site. The stadium came down in 2008-09. / REGINA H. BOONE/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Business Writer

George Jackson director of the Detroit Economic Growth Group Corp. At his office in the Guardian Building and on Woodward. Wednesday, September 21, 2011. JESSICA J. TREVINO/Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press

The top Detroit economic development official accused U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat from Detroit, and a nonprofit group Tuesday of blocking a redevelopment proposal for the Tiger Stadium site by insisting — for nostalgia’s sake — that plans include a baseball park with the same dimensions as those of the demolished field.

The original center field wall of Tiger Stadium was 440 feet from home plate — 20 feet more than at Comerica Park.

George Jackson, CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., told an audience of about 300 business and community leaders Tuesday that the now-scuttled redevelopment plan called for a row of retail stores, the Parade Company’s new headquarters and, to the chagrin of Levin and a nonprofit called the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, a Little League-style field with a shorter outfield and smaller basepaths than those in Tiger Stadium.

“We had a plan that was nixed because we didn’t comply with their need for a center field that no Major League ballpark even has at this point,” Jackson said following a Detroit Economic Club event in the Renaissance Center’s Detroit Marriott.

A Levin spokeswoman referred all comment to the Parade Company and the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, which denied foiling the redevelopment proposal for the reason Jackson gave.

Thomas Linn, the conservancy’s president, said his group wants to see the stadium’s field rebuilt with a nice fence and some modest stands, but isn’t dead set against projects that wouldn’t accomplish that.

“I don’t think that’s a true statement,” said Linn, an attorney. “It was our preference to preserve more of the ball field, but I don’t think it was our preference to say, ‘No, no, never.’ At least, I didn’t say that.”

The conservancy controls a $3.8-million federal earmark that Levin obtained in 2009 to aid business development in and around the stadium site, which saw its last Tigers game played in 1999 and came down in 2008-09.

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The land is owned by the City of Detroit and controlled by Jackson’s Economic Growth Corp.

Since the Tigers moved to Comerica Park, Jackson has sparred with fans of the old ballpark who suggested using part of the then-standing structure as a community center and the field itself for baseball uses. Jackson dismissed the proposals as unrealistic, holding out for a mixed-use development.

Most recently, Jackson opposed an idea for erecting a $3-million to $6-million Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy.

“We have never turned down a deal that makes sense, I can assure you that,” Jackson said Tuesday.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Jackson said the redevelopment plan that Levin and the conservancy opposed would have placed a row of new retail stores on the site along Michigan Avenue in Corktown. These stores would be anchored by a new warehouse, showroom and headquarters for the Parade Company, the nonprofit entity that produces the annual fireworks downtown and the Thanksgiving Day parade.

Additionally, the plan called for constructing 10 Little League-style ball fields throughout the city for youths in the Detroit Police Athletic League. One of those fields would go more or less where the Tiger Stadium ball diamond was, but would be smaller.

Jackson questioned why youths would need a 440-foot outfield and suggested that the conservancy’s motives are more aligned with that of middle-age adults infatuated with how Michigan and Trumbull used to look.

“Most of the people you see playing on there are grown men. Their definition of kids are like my age — I’m 60,” Jackson said in his speech. Afterward, he added: “We can’t make a decision based on fond memories.’”

Jim Curran, a Lansing lobbyist who is helping the conservancy group, said the redevelopment plans were not called off by the senator or the stadium conservancy, but were put on hold this summer by the Parade Company, which has yet to raise the estimated $22 million to $25 million needed for a new headquarters.